''Surviving Object Oriented Projects'' by AlistairCockburn, 1998

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0201498340.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[ISBN 0201498340] OO projects and how to keep them out of their first several dozen holes.  

Recurring themes are, 
* Training developers in object-think swamps all other costs.... 
* Managing OO project is mostly like managing non-OO projects, even though OO design is completely different....
* Develop in increments, down to running, tested code....  
* Find and fix failing ideas.... 
* Build a habit of delivering.... 
* Stay away from C++ for IT projects...
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Amazon's "instant recommendations" service
just recommended Alistair's book.  Cool.  --DaveSmith
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A good book - even for programmers. --Michael Binzen
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Interesting little note about the efficacy of advertising I recently learned.  Amazon highlighted the book for about 3 days on its Computers & Internet page, with a nice review.... the book instantly started selling, eclipsing even UmlDistilled for a few hours or a day.  It jumped to Amazon's top 100 of computer books (#47) that week.  Wow! Did I feel great, loved, rich, famous, etc., etc.  Then the great webby spotlight of fame moved on to its next target, having given me my 3 days of glory.  And now life is back to normal (sure is dark around here).  Quite the experience, exilarating and humbling, in quick succession. -- AlistairCockburn

Like a mini-DotComBust...
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"Stay away from C++ for IT projects" caught my eye. I know neither CeeLanguage nor CeePlusPlus, but may be forced to learn a little as I am learning DistributedInternetArchitecture and wanting to create some server components. If not C++, what language, VbClassic?
-- DavidLiu

''The best choice depends on your context, of course. What Alistair says is that it is never C++. Bear in mind that the book was written at the time when it was a debatable subject. By now, I would think, it should be pretty obvious to anyone that Java or C#, if not necessarily the best choice, is better for IT apps than C++ in almost all cases. Or do you have a different opinion?''
-- AlexeyVerkhovsky

HorsesForCourses, surely? A lot of people use a mixture of technologies. We use C++, Java, C#, Python, OCaml, Excel and so on. Each has different strengths and weaknesses. Saying "X is better than Y" in the absense of context doesn't convey much information to me.

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''As it says, the context is "writing an IT application".''

Now all we have to do is define (constrain) "IT application".

''If your Uncle Fred writes it as a weekend hobby, it's not an "IT application".''
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